Finding your competitors

To find your competitors, you must first define your own niche. Not certain of your niche? Visit Chapter 8 to learn more about how to focus your blog and discover what areas of blogging are popular with other bloggers. Your niche consists of what you're blogging about, the topics you cover, and what words you use most frequently in your posts. You use these keywords to describe yourself, and visitors use them to find you when they conduct a search on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or another search engine.

Use these descriptive words (plus the word blog) to locate blogs that have similar content to yours. You can also use one of the blog search engines and catalogs, such as the self-proclaimed oldest blog listing, Blogarama (www.blogarama.com/en/), Bloggernity (www.bloggernity.com), Blog Catalog (www.blogcatalog.com), Blogging Fusion (www.bloggingfusion.com), Best of the Web (www.botw.org), or Twingly (www.twingly.com), shown in Figure 9-1.

Discovering the secrets of success

Spending time reading competitors’ blogs provides you not only with a chance to figure out what topics they blog about, of course, but also how they reach out to their audience.

Your competitors might not be blogging in the most effective way. While you look at these blogs, decide whether your competitors are actually reaching their audiences successfully or whether they're falling short. For example, do their blog posts receive a lot of comments? Has their content been shared often on social media sites? Are their posts easily readable or rife with clumsy grammatical errors.

While you visit these blogs, keep a journal of your impressions. Watch the following to investigate how these bloggers handle publishing and outreach:

• How frequently the blogger publishes new content on the blog: Frequency of blog posts is a big deal. Any blogger can tell you to post “frequently,” but almost none can tell you what that really means. I talk more about how often you should post in the section “Writing Well and Frequently,” later in this chapter, but you can explore this idea by noting how often your competitors choose to post to their blogs. Do they create new posts daily, or even multiple times a day? Or do they post a few times a week, or even once a week? When you become a reader of that blog, do you find yourself wanting more content or less?
• When the blogger publishes and shares blog posts: Time of day can have a surprising impact on how readers receive a blog post. You need to reach your audience members when they're likely to be sitting at their computers, looking at their phones, or checking their email and social media. If your audience consists of stockbrokers, time your posts so that new content becomes available just before business hours start on the East Coast, not during dinnertime on the West Coast. If you're targeting teens, try to publish before or after school hours, not while they're sitting in homeroom. (Theoretically, they are doing schoolwork at that point and not surfing the Internet!)

  Sure, your readers can visit your blog anytime and pick up content that you posted in the middle of the night, but online content is constantly refreshing. If your content is several hours old by the time your readers pick up their phones, it may be buried under newer content.

• The length of posts on the blog: You might be surprised to know that the ideal length of a blog post is a hotly debated topic among experienced bloggers. Some bloggers swear by the short-and-sweet recipe that guides most web writing: Blog posts should get to the point quickly and allow readers to get back to their busy days with the information that they need. Others find that longer posts — even essays — do the job, keeping readers on the site longer and providing more thoughtful commentary. The topic of your blog and your audience's appetite and available time combine to dictate the natural length of your blog posts. Looking at your competitors’ blogs can tell you the number of words that they find optimal in a blog post, which you can use as a starting point for your blog. I cover blog post length later in this chapter in the section “Writing Well and Frequently.”

  Read even more about how post length impacts your search engine results in Chapter 19.

• When the blogger links to outside websites: Linking to other blogs and websites is a great way to serve the reader. By pointing out other sources of information or even other blogs, you help them become more knowledgeable about your topic and keep them engaged with it. So, when do your competitors choose to link to other sites, and what sites do they link to? Are the links designed to entertain, educate, or inform? Are links included in the text of the post or broken out at the end? What makes you click a link yourself?

  I talk a lot more about linking to other sites as a strategy for reaching your audience in the section “Serving the Reader,” later in this chapter.

• When the blogger addresses his or her audience directly: Many bloggers use a very personal writing style that directly acknowledges the reader, the way this book does. You might enjoy being addressed directly by a blogger because the conversation feels more personal. Or, depending on the topic of the blog, perhaps a more formal, almost academic approach is more appropriate. Either way, check out how your competition is handling this issue. When do they ask readers for input or feedback, and how do they phrase those requests? Do readers actually respond, and if so, to what kinds of approaches?
• Use of multimedia, such as photos, audio, and videos: Photos, graphics, and videos have become equally important as words in the world of blogging over the years. Take a look at how your competitors include multimedia in their blogs. Do they use photos to illustrate the ideas in the posts or just to attract the eye? What about embedded video content? Do posts that have these extras get more comments or fewer? Do posts with more images seem to receive more social media shares? Do you like getting information in these other formats or do you find them distracting?
• Posts that get a lot of comments and posts that get very few: A blog that gets a lot of comments signals that the blogger is resonating with his or her audience — even if just to make audience members mad. A blog that has no or few comments probably just leaves people flat (or maybe isn't even read). Most bloggers don’t receive hundreds of comments every time they post. Some blog posts just get better responses than others, and part of what makes bloggers successful is being able to know what makes those posts really work so that they can repeat the success. Watch your competitors’ blogs to see when a post gets a big response and look at what kind of response it gets.

  Also, watch for the posts that don't get any responses. Try to figure out why those posts didn't work so that you don't make the same mistake!

• The writing style of the blogger: Bloggers need to have good content, and for most bloggers, that comes down to having an accessible and readable writing style. For those blogs in your niche that attract participation and good press, what style does the blogger use? Personal? Professional? Humorous? What tone appeals to readers and makes them come back to the blog again and again? What approach do you find more readable and engaging?
• How frequently the blogger creates sponsored content: Many bloggers earn income by partnering with clients to create what’s called sponsored content. This content is often easy to spot, but it should always also include a disclosure that the blogger has received a payment in exchange for the post. (Read more about sponsored content in Chapter 20.) For most bloggers, finding a balance between organic content and sponsored content is a tricky endeavor. Make note of the times that you’ve visited a blog and found the content to be too heavy on sponsored posts. How often was too often in your opinion?

Use these same points of analysis on your own blog. After you have your blog up and running for awhile, take a look at your content with the same critical eye that you use on your competitors. What are you doing right? What are you doing incorrectly?

You may find this exercise hard to do. I'm sure you’ll love your content when you first create it; after all, no one sets out to write a bad blog post! Still, some of your posts will likely be more popular with readers than others, and if you can figure out why certain posts work better than others, you can repeat that success again and again. In fact, developing a critical eye for your own content can really help you make your blog succeed: This medium doesn't hold still, and you need to adapt your style and content while your audience grows and changes. Consider conducting this kind of survey of your content a couple times a year to make sure that you stay on track and topical to the folks you want to attract, even if you're aiming for just your immediate family.

If you find it tough to view your own content through that kind of lens, but you have a friend or two who get what you are doing and can look at it critically, ask them to do a site review. Just remember, they are giving you opinions and advice, but it's your call whether you implement any of that!

Profiling your audience

When you finish your competitive analysis (which I explain how to do in the preceding section) and after you review your own content successes and failures, picture your audience in your mind's eye.

Create a clear vision of who's in your audience. If you don't have the audience you're targeting at this point, develop a picture of whom you want in your audience.

You don't actually have to draw a picture, though. You can create this profile in words that describe the characteristics of your ideal audience member. You can include anything that you want in this profile, from shoe size to personal hang-ups — any detail that helps you really know this person better and create content for this person on your blog.

Don't just say, “My ideal audience is anybody who is interested in [insert your blog topic here].” You already know that. Otherwise, this person wouldn't be on your blog in the first place. You want to capture all the details that make this person different, unique, and interesting.

Take From Hip to Housewife, as shown in Figure 9-2. From Hip to Housewife (www.fromhiptohousewife.com) is a blog written by author Nancy Friedman, who describes her writing as being “on aging and momming and my twenty-year quest to lose the same ten pounds.” This tagline combined with categories ranging from family to travel to parenting make it clear the type of reader she anticipates visiting her site.

Some concepts and facts to explore for your audience profile include

• Age
• Gender
• The nature of their interest in your topic (for example, familial, personal, emotional, or professional)
• Geographic location and proximity to you or to the topic of your blog
• Lifestyle (for example, workaholic, homebody, retired, world traveler, and so on)
• Occupation
• Education level
• Marital status
• Interests and hobbies
• Income range
• Political leanings

When you have a reader profile in hand, you can be more targeted about what you choose to write about and how you address that audience.

Writing for a specific audience

In Chapter 1, I talk about the idea of super-focused blogs that cater to a very specific audience such as American suburbanites who own pet fainting goats. Over time, blogging has evolved from a primarily journal-based writing style, which encompassed any number of topics, to a competitive online medium where super-niche topics are able to cut through the noise to find popularity among super-niche readers.

You may be joining the blogosphere because you have a passion for writing and not because you’re hoping to earn a huge online following. If this describes you, then you may choose to ignore everything you just read about knowing your audience. Your main focus may be to know yourself as a writer! But if you’re deeply interested in growing your audience and perhaps turning blogging into a source of income, consider selecting a focus for your blog — and for your writing — that intentionally attracts a specific audience that you believe is ready and waiting for content like yours.

Being yourself

Blogging is quite a personal, conversational medium, and textual blogs have a strong feel of the author and his or her personality. The first blogs were actually online diaries, and even today, most bloggers choose to use words such as I or my in their blog posts, creating an intimate and open feel — even on corporate blogs. This first-person writing differs dramatically from most corporate communication, which at best refers to the company as our and at worst only refers to the company by its full and official name.

Writing in the first person isn't as easy as it looks (or reads). After all, many people spend years training to write more formally, and they commonly produce all kinds of documents in which first-person writing is emphatically not suitable: memos, reports, news stories, invoices, and so on. You may have trouble finding an authentic, genuine voice that really feels comfortable. My best advice is to just practice, practice, practice.

If you'd like your blog to have a casual tone, think of your blog posts as being like letters or emails. Speak directly and simply, as you would in a personal note or letter. Try not to overthink your words, but don't go right into stream of consciousness (which is fun to write but hard to read).

Don’t be afraid to show emotion in your blog posts. In fact, some of the most popular content I’ve ever created resulted from an extreme emotion: joy, grief, anger. Part of what makes blogs so popular is that the reader can relate to the author. The best way for people to relate to you is for you to be yourself and not hold back.

Blogger Heather Solos of Home-Ec 101 (www.home-ec101.com) has built her brand on posts about how to clean anything, cook anything, and fix anything. But when she tragically lost her sister to suicide, Heather opened up her heart to her readers in the blog post, “Death, Organ and Tissue Donation, and Grief.” Heather’s community rallied behind her, showing their support with nearly two hundred post comments (shown in Figure 9-3).

In contrast, Erin Lane of A Parenting Production (www.aparentingproduction.com) writes often about the personal on her parenting blog, but she allows herself to dive even deeper from time to time with topics such as the struggle with body image (shown in Figure 9-4).

Remember the old saying: You can’t unring a bell. Even when I show very real and sometimes raw emotion in my writing, I am cautious to not put something out into the world that I may want to take back later. I try to avoid ranty complaint posts, for example. There’s a difference between righteous indignation and whining. Consider placing your most emotive content into a drafts folder for 24 hours before hitting publish just to make sure you still want to share after the initial flood of emotion has passed.

One of my favorite techniques for making my blog posts readable is to read my post out loud. If it sounds close to something I might actually say in conversation, it hits the right tone for a blog post — on my blog, at least.

If you make your blog informal and conversational, you still shouldn't ignore spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. Some bloggers do opt for an unedited approach, but keep in mind that people have more trouble, not less, reading poorly formulated writing. If you have a professional blog, or ever hope to make money from your blog, you definitely need to pay attention to spelling and grammar because these little details influence your credibility. Do your readers a favor — use the grammar and spell-check functions of your word processor — and proofread, too.

Finding rewards in lengthy posts

You may have guessed from the length of this book that I tend to have a lot to say. Guilty as charged! The trouble with that is that the blogosphere has not always rewarded long blog posts. In fact, as we have moved to a culture that prefers quick, easy-to-consume content, easier to enjoy on our smartphones with fewer characters and more images, it began to seem as though the days of reading wordy posts had gone the way of the dodo.

But wait! Recent SEO (search engine optimization) research shows that search engines such as Google and Bing are actually rewarding lengthy blog posts over brief content with fewer words. I’m not recommending that every post you write be a manifesto that goes on for pages and pages, but the fact is that a blog post of around 1,750 words seems to be the sweet spot to bring readers to your blog via search engine traffic.

Which words you choose for your lengthy blog posts still matter, though. Ideally you’d like to hook those search engine visitors and keep them there for the duration of your post, maybe even encouraging them to click around your site and read additional content. What you say still matters as much as how you say it … or how long it takes you to say it.

One of the best ways to keep a reader on your blog for longer is to introduce them to other related content on your site at the conclusion of each post. You can certainly create these callouts and links by hand with simple text and hyperlinks, but there are also great, free plug-ins such as Jetpack, AddThis, and Inline Related Posts that will do this for you!

I say much more about how to use search engine optimization (SEO) to draw readers to your blog in Chapter 16.

Remembering proofreading and editing

Confession time. I was an English teacher in my days before leaping full time into the online world, and poor grammar is still a pet peeve of mine. I enjoy correctly used commas, and I can likely always explain why each comma is correct.

While I know that the typical blog reader does not have my interest in proper grammar or correct spelling — or perhaps more accurately, my aversion to errors — it does remain important for good content to be shored up with careful proofreading and judicious editing. For starters, most blog software and all word processing programs come equipped with spell-check tools. Do not simply ignore the squiggly red lines under your creatively spelled words! Be sure to take the time to correct the spelling in your posts, even the most informal ones.

Proofreading goes beyond simply spelling words correctly. I once assigned a high school English class the task of comparing the movie version and the book version of the same story. Imagine my shock when one student handed in a paper comparing the movie virgin with the book virgin. In his hasty typing, he did not realize that his fingers were spelling a different version of a similar sounding word. And because virgin is a correctly spelled word, there were no red squiggly lines to save the day. Much embarrassment can be prevented by reading over your writing carefully before hitting publish. I highly recommend reading your words aloud to yourself! Many errors have been caught by turning the written word into the spoken word. One tip: If you tend to work in coffee shops or shared work spaces, you might want to wait until you’re in the safety of your own home before putting this advice into practice.

So how does editing differ from spell-checking and proofreading? Well, in spite of my earlier encouragement to write lengthy blog posts with some real depth to them, it is still a good idea to edit your words for characteristics such as clarity of thought, missed points, unnecessary repetition, and yes, unnecessary length. While I encourage you to say all that you want to say — in the end, it’s your blog — you do need to be mindful of how your readers will receive your writing if you’d like them to stay your readers.

Relying on your content calendar

In Chapter 1, I mentioned the use of a content calendar. While blogging began as a somewhat free-flowing medium with a focus on personal storytelling and journaling, many bloggers today actually prefer more structure in their blogging life. One popular blogging tool is the content calendar, a way to plan future content.

Content calendars are a great way to keep your blogging consistent and organized. They provide you with the ability to see your upcoming content at a glance, helping you find the perfect place for last-minute content ideas or sponsored content. They also offer a way to organize your thoughts on future posts in those moments when you have a burst of creativity. When writer’s block comes to call, as it does for all of us from time to time, a nicely filled-in content calendar can be the answer to your prayers!

Have you heard the term evergreen content? Some blog posts stand the test of time! If you’ve got space on your content calendar and can’t come up with a new post idea, consider recycling a post from the past that worked well for you then. I suggest that you begin such reposts with something along the lines of, “This post was originally published on….”

Beyond keeping you organized and providing a way out of an idea drought, a content calendar is a great opportunity to create a blog strategy. Are you trying to establish yourself as an authority in a specific area? Your content calendar can act as your plan of attack. Considering utilizing guest posts from other writers? A content calendar helps you give those writers enough lead time so that they’ve got a post ready for you when you need it.

Creating a content calendar doesn’t need to be complicated. I’m a huge fan of downloading and printing free online calendar templates for everything from my kids’ doctor’s appointments to sports team practice schedules. I even print them out on old fashioned paper! There are a variety of tools available such as the web-based project organization tool, Trello (www.trello.com), and the organization app, Evernote (www.evernotes.com).

If you’re more of a web-based tool user than a pen-and-paper kind of person, I suggest starting with the free calendar tool in the Google suite of products. Google Calendar (shown in Figure 9-5) allows you to create a simple and straightforward content calendar with easily replicable recurring posts. With just the input of an email address, you can share your calendar with coauthors or even invite guest contributors to add to your calendar.

To set up a Google Calendar, simply follow these steps:

1. Point your web browser to www.google.com/calendar.

2. Sign in to your Google account, or create a new, free Google account.

   If you already use Google Calendar for other aspects of your life, consider creating a new account with an email address related to your blog, such as [email protected]. Google does allow you to create a variety of separate calendars within one account, but a separate account may be helpful for clarity’s sake.

3. Select New Calendar (shown in Figure 9-6) from the menu in the left sidebar. Note that you will need to click on the ellipsis in order to access this option.
4. Name and describe your new calendar (shown in Figure 9-7).
5. Click on Create Calendar.
6. Navigate the Calendar Settings (shown in Figure 9-8) in the left sidebar in order to customize your calendar settings.

Hooking with a headline

What makes you click on a headline to go on to read the actual article? Do you click on any content that seems like interesting subject matter, or does the quality of the headline itself play a role in whether you click through or you click away?

For most readers, a catchy blog post title is the initial point when they consider visiting a website. With the endless amount of constantly updating content available today, bloggers need to be thoughtful about how they title each post. Think about your target audience. What title is likely to make them click? For example, if your site is mostly visited by readers looking for stock tips, a title that teases a hot new stock recommendation is likely to draw clicks. Try to use strong language, catchy alliteration, and include keywords that might turn up in a search engine query. Be careful not to mislead your readers, though. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as being sucked in with a spicy title only to find that the actual content is really quite bland.

Turning to video and photos

I am a bit of a purist in that I miss the days of blogging content being ruled by the written word. But with that said, I’m here to tell you that multimedia content is a very large component of what draws in readers, or maybe viewers. If you spend a bit of time perusing the world of food blogging, for example, you’ll find that the typical post is one gorgeous image after another with only a small amount of text anchoring each photograph. And if you ever want to locate the actual recipe, you’ll need to scroll way past the images to the bottom of the post.

Pictures draw readers in to your blog, encourage them to share your content, and keep them coming back for more. Photographs and video of course work well for bloggers in certain niches such as travel, food, fashion, beauty, DIY, and design. But just because you blog on a topic that might not immediately bring to mind media rich content, don’t completely dismiss the idea of adding compelling images and video to your posts.

Learn much more about video and photography in Part 4, “Going Beyond Words.”

Following what’s trending

Sometimes the best way to create great content — especially when you’re struggling to come up with topic ideas — is to check out the latest trends. Blogging about topics people are already talking about makes it more likely that your content will be found and read. Take time each week to visit social media and news sites to find popular hashtags and hotly debated topics. I suggest keeping an eye on the trending topics list on Twitter (www.twitter.com), perusing Instagram (www.instagram.com), and checking out Facebook to see if there are common threads in what your friends are sharing and discussing.

Another great tool to follow current trends is Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/), shown in Figure 9-9. Check out what searches are popular right at this moment as well as what searches have been popular throughout the year. You can enter your own search terms or view suggested and currently trending keywords.

Joining the crowd

At this point, you may be experiencing a little bit of stress about the pressures of creating great, multi-media rich content and finding ways to share it with the world. Take a deep breath and take heart: You are not alone! One of the absolute best things about blogging is the community that you are immediately joining with your decision to blog. Welcome!

Bloggers often work together to create similar content to publish and promote collectively. These joint efforts are a great way to make a much bigger splash. Content tends to revolve around a specific theme or endeavor, such as back to school tips or the launch of a new book. After coming together to agree on a topic and the goal of the collective blogging, bloggers then create content, link back to one another, and promote each other’s work through social media outreach. It is a fantastic way to build relationships, reach new readers, and gain some street cred. In spite of my use of the word competitors earlier in this chapter, remember that blogging is often actually about collaboration.

Listing with listicles

A listicle is not only a delightful word to say, but it is also a type of blog content. Listicles are blog posts that are primarily comprised of a numbered list. Examples might be “15 Items to Pack for Your Grand Canyon Vacation” or “12 Ways to Know That Your Spouse is Lying.” Listicles have become very popular in the blogging world, and while I wouldn’t recommend that you create an entire blog of list-based posts (although that could be fun!), I do believe that they’re a great way to offer your readers easily consumed content that is often fun or helpful.

Figure 9-10 shows an example of a listicle I created for the popular blog Babble (www.babble.com).

Grabbing readers with food

Remember my mention of gorgeous photos of food grabbing the attention of readers? Food-based content is something that appeals to all readers. After all, we all have to eat! If you have a distinct love for food, are a budding epicurean, or a skilled recipe saver, food blogging may be the perfect content for you to create! Consider writing reviews of your favorite local restaurants or the best places to visit when you travel. You may want to share your favorite recipe tweaks or walk readers through pulling together a last-minute meal on a budget that will delight the entire family!

Giving them what they need

Home-Ec 101 (www.home-ec101.com), mentioned earlier in this chapter, is the perfect example of a blog providing readers with information that they need. Blogger Heather Solos cashed in on the fact that many adults find themselves in situations for which they were not prepared. Adulting is difficult, and Heather blogs to make it easier. Readers on her site are able to find instructions for everything from how to clean a bagless vacuum to how to care for acrylic flooring.

Giving them what they want

Beyond providing readers with useful advice or timeless tips and tricks, you can also create content that simply offers them with what they want, be it a place to chat about the latest celebrity gossip or breaking news on changes to Disney Parks. Don’t be afraid to ask your readers what they’re looking for in a blog post. You may be surprised by what they love about your blog and by what they would like to see more of in your future content!

Creating content worth referencing

We’ve all seen it happen. A blogger writes a post that someone finds overwhelmingly powerful, surprisingly helpful, or maybe even highly controversial. That reader shares the link with all her friends who share it with all their friends. Very quickly your entire Facebook newsfeed is filled with links to that singular post, shared by everyone from your high school football coach to your mother-in-law.

A surefire way to reach more readers is to create content worth referencing. This does not mean that you need to create a how-to blog like the previously mentioned Home-Ec 101. It may be that you share your well informed and educated thoughts on the latest political happenings or take on the latest parenting debate such as whether or not to vaccinate. The point is to create content that someone is likely to read and then refer back to either in social media shares or in real life conversations.

Many bloggers like to quote news articles and blog posts, and then expand on them. If you take this approach, make sure that you understand the rules of copyright law when you use someone else's words — it's always best to ask permission! For more, read the sidebar “Respecting copyright.”

Getting linky with it

Links — you need ’em. You may worry that by providing a link to a news story or online article, you're sending your readers away from your site into the black hole of the Internet, never to return. Your readers might, in fact, click the link and go read the article. But they probably won't forget where they found the link.

When adding a hyperlink to your blog content, be sure to change the outgoing link settings to “open in a new window.” This keeps your blog post open on the screen rather than sends the reader away.

On a blog, links are just as much a resource as any other information that you provide. In fact, many blogs actually consist of collections of links around a topic or theme, pulled together to inform or entertain the blog's readers.

If you're providing good content and expanding on that content by using links, you're doing your readers a service that they won't forget — one they likely come back to you for.

Links are the currency of the blogosphere. A lot of bloggers point their readers to blog posts that they find especially interesting, even going so far as to quote the other blogger. In general, bloggers are generous about linking to other blogs and websites because the favor is frequently returned. As the saying goes, “You have to spend a little to make a little.”

Adding links to your posts is a good thing … unless you're irresponsible about what you link to. Take your responsibility as a publisher seriously, and don't send people to suspect resources or throw them into an adult-oriented site without warning.

When you link to a blog post, be sure you link to the permalink URL, not the blog's home page. A permalink is the unique web address for an individual blog post — the permanent link to that page. You should use the permalink because the blogger might update the blog any time after you create the link, pushing the post that you mention down or even off the blog's home page.